A swarm of earthquakes has been occurring overnight south-west of Kawerau, and felt across the Bay of Plenty.

"We have recorded more than 40 earthquakes so far, the largest of which have been a M4.8 and M4.6," says a Geonet spokesperson on their Facebook page.

"This swarm is in a similar area to swarms that occurred in 2018 and 2019."

The earthquakes started at 3.29am with the most recent being recorded at 6.47am.

"Feeling earthquakes close together in time can be unsettling, but this is typical activity for the area, and our team is keeping an eye on things," says Geonet on Facebook.

Over 2000 people reported feeling the 4.6M quake at 4,31am which was located 25 km south-west of Whakatane at a depth of 5km.

Nearly 3000 people reported feeling the 4.8M quake at 4.46am which was also located 25km south-west of Whakatane at a depth of 5km.

NZ Civil Defence also posted to their Facebook page early Saturday morning.

"Hope everyone is okay! Our friends at GeoNet tell us this is an earthquake swarm, causing a series of shakes which have woken quite a few people up. These can be pretty worrying - just a reminder that in an earthquake, make sure you drop, cover and hold."

Keep up to date with earthquake information at GeoNet www.geonet.org.nz and check out https://getready.govt.nz for more on what to do in an earthquake.